A Recap and A Chew Out
by LBIGreyhound13
Summary: Takes place during LivingAliveCreator's fan comic "Rise of the Guardians: Shift." While Jack is in Burgess fighting Mori, North, Tooth, Bunny, and Sandy have their own issues to deal with while they are trapped in the Infinity Cell at the North Pole. WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS! I highly suggest reading the fan comic before reading this if you haven't already.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Hey, everyone! Welcome to my first ROTG fanfic. Okay, so this fanfic is based on the fancomic "Rise of the Guardians: SHIFT" written by LivingAliveCreator. If you haven't read it yet, I highly suggest that you do that first because this story is going to be FILLED with spoilers. I'll post the link in the description below so you can check it out. The story takes place after page 156 and ends on page 194 of the comic while the story's events take place in Burgess. Hope you all enjoy it!

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything here. "Rise of the Guardians: Shift" belongs to LivingAliveCreator, who gave me permission to write this story, and the characters of the movie **_**Rise of the Guardians **_**belong to Dreamworks. **

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A Recap and…A Chew Out

Chapter 1: The Recap

Sandy was beyond confused at the moment. He was the wisest and the oldest out of all the Guardians, and yet he still couldn't comprehend what Tooth was saying. First, he suddenly woke up after—how long, he did not know—in North's Infinity Cell at the Pole, and now Tooth was saying something about a shifter putting them all—he and his friends—to sleep and in the Infinity Cell and Jack not having North's coat anymore.

So many questions ran through the Sandman's mind, but the ones that really stood out were…"Weren't shifters supposed to be extinct?" and "Why would Jack…Jack Frost…the winter spirit need North's big red coat?" This was one of those times where he wished that he had the ability to speak to ask Tooth all these questions, but unfortunately, all he could do was create a question mark with his golden dream sand above his head and shrug his shoulders hoping that Tooth could comprehend it.

She must've thankfully because she breathed a sad sigh and hung her head down in shame. _What did she have to be ashamed of?_ Sandy wondered.

"Oh, Sandy, it's a long story," she said as she looked at him again. "All you need to know is a shifter survived the fire."

Wait…what? A shifter? How could that be? The shifters were extinct. There was no way one lone shifter could have survived that fire all those years ago. North checked and confirmed it himself. He expressed his shock by creating an exclamation point over his head.

"Yeah, I know," Tooth said looking down on the ice cave floor. She stared into her own reflection in the ice as she remembered all the events that led up to this point. Even she was confused as to how all of this could've happened, and she was there with North the whole time witnessing it all. "It's all our fault. Jack tried to tell us, but we didn't believe him. As if that wasn't bad enough, now the Moon seems to have betrayed us."

Sandy arched his golden eyebrow at the fairy. How could Tooth be blaming herself? What could've happened that made Jack come to the conclusion that a shifter was alive? More importantly, why wouldn't she believe Jack if he had this crucial piece of information? And what was this about Manny betraying them? He was their friend. How could anyone, especially Tooth, think that the Man in the Moon would betray the Guardians? He was about to make Tooth tell him more, but he stopped himself when he remembered that North and Bunny were still asleep with their backs leaning against each other just a few feet away from him and Tooth. He floated over to them to wake them up, but as he did, he began to notice something else. Tooth kept mentioning Jack, but…where was Jack? He quickly glanced around the Cell and saw no signs of the winter spirit he had come to love as a little brother, but then he shook his head bringing himself back to reality. He had to get North and Bunny to wake up. Then he could start asking questions.

Tooth noticed her small friend going over to North and Bunny and gave him a sad smile. She had never been so happy to see her friends—or at least three of them—together again. She wanted to go up to them and hug them, but she couldn't… Not yet. She turned back to the small window that gave them a full view of the Moon allowing the determination to flood into her small petite body.

"No, you're right, Sandy," Tooth said as she kept her eyes on the Moon and watched the Earth's shadow begin to cover it signaling the beginning of the eclipse. "Right now, we need to focus." She then turned back to Sandy, who was already working on bringing North and Bunny out of their slumber. "Let's wake the others up, and once the eclipse comes, the Moon won't be around to protect the Cell. We can all escape then. If I'm right, the eclipse should completely cover the Moon in a few hours… We're running out of time."

Sandy furrowed his eyebrows in concentration as he focused on the Guardians of Wonder and Hope waving his arms in a circular motion focusing on the dream sand that kept his friends in a deep sleep. Soon enough, the dream sand followed its master's silent command and left the big man and the Pooka. As soon as Sandy was sure he had gotten rid of the dream sand, he let it disintegrate and waited for North and Bunny to wake up.

It was not long until North and Bunny stirred finally coming out of unconsciousness. Tooth slowly fluttered over to the three of them and watched as the two large Guardians opened their eyes. Bunny yawned and smacked his lips while North rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"North, Bunny," Tooth said to them, "wake up."

Both turned to look at whoever was calling their names blinking their eyes a few times to bring their visions back to focus. When they did, they saw two of their friends before them.

"Sandy…" North said drearily as he stared at the little golden man, who gave him a small smile, that North was sure he would never see again.

"Tooth…" Bunny said as he looked up at the small fairy.

Before either of them could say anything else, both North and Bunny noticed that their backs were leaning on something. So they turned around to see what it was only to come face to face with each other since they were leaning back-to-back on each other. They widened their eyes in shock and a little embarrassment and quickly yelped as they jumped away from each other.

"Don't. Ever. Lean on me. Like that. Again!" Bunny shouted. If he didn't have fur, one could probably see a faint blush on his face as he tried to weasel his way out of this awkward situation.

North rolled his eyes as he stood dusting himself off and adjusted his furry hat on his head to avoid eye contact with Bunny. "As long as you promise not to do the same and we never speak of this again," he said.

"Couldn't agree more," Bunny said as he stood as well giving North a faint smile.

North saw this and gave a small chuckle. He would never admit it, but it felt good to finally get a chance to laugh again after what felt like an eternity even though it was only a matter of days. Although, he wasn't sure whether it was because he was reunited with two of his best friends after they were missing for so long or because of the crack Bunny made. He was pretty sure it was both.

"It's good to see you again, Bunny," he said. Then he turned his eyes to the little golden man standing next to Tooth, who had an even bigger smile, "and you, too, Sandy."

Bunny and Sandy's smiles both faded away and turned into confused looks. They looked at each other and back at North, who didn't even seem phased by their confusion.

"Good…to see you, too, mate, but…wh-OOF" Before Bunny could finish, a flash of green, blue and gold suddenly came up to him and practically tackled him. Tooth had pulled him and Sandy into a tight bear hug.

"Oh, I'm so glad you two are alright!" Tooth cried hugging Bunny and Sandy even tighter. It felt so great to be able to hug the Guardians of Hope and Dreams again. She had never been so happy to see them. "We were so worried about you."

When Tooth finally released them from her iron grip, Bunny and Sandy both looked at her in confusion, then back at each other, and then at North.

"What are you two talking about?" Bunny asked. "You guys just saw us yesterday when North called us to help with the fire." The Pooka knew that they were all best friends…practically family, but this was a little ridiculous and confusing. Here they were in the Infinity Cell at the Pole, and North and Tooth were acting like they hadn't seen each other in centuries.

Now it was North and Tooth's turn to be confused. The shifter they encountered hours ago after…well, _it_ happened made it very clear that he was holding Bunny and Sandy hostage somewhere…outside of Burgess just as Jack said, but both the Easter Bunny and the Sandman were acting like as if nothing happened. They looked back at their friends.

"Bunny…Sandy…what's the last thing you remember?" Tooth suddenly asked.

Bunny eyed her with even more confused, but nevertheless, he thought to the last thing that happened before he woke up in the Cell just now. That was when it all came back to him.

"Well…it's kind a blur," he began as the events began to replay in his head, "but I remember it was the day after North showed me the picture of the arsonist fleeing from the fire. I was in my Warren painting some eggs, and then I heard someone come in through the tunnels. I went to see who it was, and at first, I thought it was Jack because he was hidden in the shadows, and the figure looked like him." He could have sworn he saw North and Tooth visibly tense, but he continued his story regardless. "But then the figure stepped out, and I realized that it wasn't Jack. It was like this older version of him with black hair, green eyes, and I'm pretty sure I saw a tail. I asked him who he was, but he didn't answer and just opened up this small bag. Some gold sand came out, and next thing I knew, I'm waking up here in the Infinity Cell with you blokes."

North nodded as he let Bunny's story sink in as the pieces of this puzzle were finally coming together. Then they all turned to Sandy.

"Sandy, how about you?" North asked. "What do you remember?"

Sandy answered by creating an image of a calendar with one day marked off, followed by a fire, and then North talking to Sandy.

North furrowed his bushy eyebrows in concentration trying to decipher the images. "It was…a day after the fire…after I found you and told you about the picture…" he translated.

Sandy nodded and continued to create more images that would help his friends understand what happened. He then created an image of himself on a miniature version of his sand cloud spreading dreams everywhere.

"You were…spreading dreams to children…" Tooth translated this time.

The Sandman continued and this time made a picture of a mini-version of the stranger Bunny described in his story sneaking up from behind and scooping up Sandy's dream sand while Sandy had his back turned. The mini-version of Sandy then turned around to face the stranger only to have the stranger throw the sand at Sandy before the Guardian of Dreams even had a chance to react.

"Then this stranger…the one who came to my Warren…snuck up on you and used your dream sand on you," Bunny translated.

Tooth quietly gasped. Someone had actually dared to use Sandy's dream sand against him. How was that even possible? Then again, it was impossible for a shifter to survive the fire…

Sandy then created a picture of him, Bunny, North, and Tooth waking up, seeing each other, and coming together in the group hug.

Bunny failed to notice North and Tooth tensing up and the fact that Sandy left a certain someone out of the last picture. "Now, here you are, waking up with North, Tooth, Jack, and m—"Bunny stopped in mid-sentence when a shocking realization struck him in the face.

Jack… He didn't remember seeing Jack once when he finally woke up. He didn't even hear one crack about him sleeping on North or not knowing what was going on, and Sandy didn't even bother to include him in the last picture. The Pooka looked around the small Cell only to find that it was just him, Tooth, North, and Sandy. Jack was nowhere to be found. That was strange. If the original Big Four were trapped in the Infinity Cell, then why wouldn't their newest member be in there with them? There was no way Jack would put them in here as a prank. The kid had limits, and even if he did, there was no way Manny would keep them in here with the door closed and probably locked.

He finally turned back to North, Tooth, and Sandy with a look of confusion. "Hey, where's Jack?" he finally asked them.

Bunny looked at Sandy hoping the wisest and oldest out of all of them would have the answers, but unfortunately, the only thing Sandy could do was shrug giving the Guardian of Hope the impression that he was wondering the same thing. The two of them then turned back to North and Tooth, and they became even more confused and a little scared when they saw the sad faces on both the Guardian of Wonder and the Guardian of Memories.

The both of them looked very ashamed and upset almost as if they had failed at something. North had his head down looking at his reflection in the ice, and Tooth looked away with tears forming in her eyes. Just from the looks on North and Tooth's faces, wherever Jack was at the moment it was definitely not good news.

"North…Tooth…" Bunny said trying to hide the fear ringing in his voice, "where's Jack? Why is he not in here with us?"

"North, we got to tell them," Tooth finally said avoiding Bunny's question completely. As much as she wanted to pretend that everything was okay, the Tooth Fairy knew that she couldn't…not after everything that happened over the past couple days.

"Tell us what?" Bunny asked, as he and Sandy both grew more impatient by the minute. "What are you two talking about? Just answer my question…where's Jack?"

North wanted to tell his two friends what had transpired over the past couple days before they all ended up in the Cell. The problem was…he wasn't sure on exactly where to begin. Everything had just gotten so out of control the very second he saw that picture of Jack…or at least what looked like Jack…in that fire. He managed to tear his eyes away from his reflection in the ice floor and looked Bunny and Sandy in the eye seeing the confusion and fear whirling inside of them.

He sighed in defeat deciding to just wing it. After all, the truth was going to come out eventually. "Bunny, Sandy, you should know that that stranger who kidnapped you…w-was a shifter…the same shifter who set my home on fire a few days ago," he began. "He impersonated Jack knowing that someone would see him and accuse Jack."

Both Bunny and Sandy's jaws dropped. None of the four Guardians dared to speak as the Easter Bunny and the Sandman tried to take in what was just said.

Bunny was finally the first to speak again after a few moments. "A shifter?" he asked. "B-But…that can't be right. They're extinct because of that fire, and the gumby didn't even look like a shifter…not even close."

To back up Bunny's statement, Sandy created a mini-version of a full-grown male shifter and a mini-version of the stranger, who kidnapped him and Bunny while shaking his head. There was no way a shifter could be alive after that fire, and there was no way it was the stranger, who kidnapped them. Shouldn't shifters only be able to mimic another beings? He had never seen a human like the mysterious stranger before.

"We can't believe it either," said North, "but it's true. A shifter managed to escape the fire and live all these years under our noses. He just wasn't in his true form when he kidnapped you both."

"Well, okay, so a shifter is on the loose and for some reason caused the fire at the Pole, but what does that have to do with Jack being missing?" Bunny asked with anticipation.

North sighed. "After you left, Bunny, I left the yetis to set up a temporary base in this ice cave while I went to tell Tooth and Sandy about Jack being in that picture," he said. "Then I came back here to help the yetis finish setting up. I suddenly got a call on the Orb, and sure enough, it was Jack." Bunny and Sandy cringed. "He told me that he did some research on his Orb and found out that I lied to him about the picture."

"I still say you should've just talked to him about it, but go on," Bunny interjected.

"Right," North said raising a bushy eyebrow at the Pooka, "so then he said that it wasn't him and that the Orb told him it was a shifter. Had there been different circumstances regarding the shifters, I probably would've believed him…but…" He hung his head low as Tooth moved toward him gently placing a small hand on his broad shoulder, and both Bunny and Sandy cringed again.

"…but you didn't," Bunny finished for him. He couldn't say that he was surprised. It was a little strange that Jack would place the blame on a species that had been extinct for years, but then again, maybe he didn't know the shifters were extinct because the Orb forgot to tell him.

North shook his head. "No…I told him that he wasn't making me believe him anymore by lying to me and hung up on him."

The Easter Bunny's green eyes widened in shock. "Crikey…North, I understand that the fact that he's blaming it on an extinct species was a little far-fetched, but…that's…a little harsh, even for me," he said.

Sandy created an image of Jack hugging his knees to his chest with his head down all by himself looking very upset and alone.

"I know. I know!" North said throwing his arms and head up in frustration. "Believe me, I felt horrible for doing that to him, but what else could I do? If he was lying to me…"

"Alright," Bunny suddenly said, "finish giving us the briefing, and then we'll let you mope. What happened after that?"

Tooth sighed realizing that it was time to tell her part of the story. "Well, after North told me about the picture and I finished my rounds, I went to see Jack," she said. "I told him about North telling us about the picture, and he told me about his shifter theory. He then asked me to tell him about the shifters, so I did. I told him about the fire and how not one escaped like we thought. He was still persistent in proving that the arsonist was a shifter. I tried to tell him it was impossible, but he wouldn't hear of it. So we took off back to the Pole to get things straightened out."

"And while that was going on, the Pole went up in flames again," North added.

"Again?!" Bunny asked as Sandy created an exclamation point above his head.

"Four times," North replied, "and all witnesses have claimed that they saw Jack fleeing the scene." He barely noticed Bunny tensing up at the turn of events. "After the last fire was put out, I talked to you, Bunny, here in the cave. You came by and asked me if I had figured out if Jack caused the fire."

Now, Bunny was even more confused. He only remembered talking to North about the picture of Jack in the fire and then coming back to his Warren. "What? I didn't come over here. The only time I did was when you needed help with the first fire."

"From what you already told me, I now know that it had to have been the shifter disguised as you," North concluded. "He obviously came back to the Pole to see if I figured anything out, and because both you and the shifter had the same eye color, I wasn't able to notice anything different about you. I told you about Jack's theory, which according to you we both knew was impossible, and that Jack's eyes looked green in the picture. I was actually starting to believe him, but then you said that the only reason his eyes looked green in the picture was because it was taken in the middle of the fire and the person was moving. I knew you were right, so I sent you to go get Jack so that we could talk to him."

Tooth once again took the reigns in the story and continued, "Jack and I arrived at the Pole, but we couldn't find the ice cave. When we were starting to look for it, we saw you, Bunny, standing there. Jack sent me to go get Sandy while he went with you. He knew that all five of us were going to have to sort this out together. I left, but…" she looked at North sheepishly rubbing her feathered arm, "I don't know what happened after that."

North furrowed his eyebrows in thought as he tried to finish putting the puzzle together remembering what the shifter told him and Tooth after Jack…well… No, he didn't have time to mope. Bunny and Sandy still needed to here the rest.

"Since the shifter was actually disguised as Bunny the whole time," he finally began looking back up at the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and the Sandman, "I'm assuming that the shifter met up with Jack and kidnapped him without us knowing."

Bunny gasped as the light bulb went off. _That _was why Jack wasn't with them. He must've run into the shifter thinking it was one of his fellow guardians, and the shifter kidnapped him! No wonder North and Tooth looked upset. They must've felt bad because they weren't there to help Jack out.

"So, that's it!" the Pooka exclaimed as anger and determination burned through him. "The shifter has Jack! Aw, crikey, we better get out of here and find the little bugger before the shifter gets any funny ideas!"

He immediately marched right to the door with Sandy right behind him. Sandy pounded his fist into his opened palm as sand streams came out of his ears emphasizing the death glare on his face. Neither of them cared that spirits weren't able to escape the Infinity Cell. Why? Well, because the Guardians were a family, and nobody messed with family. It was settled! They were going to get out of this cell, find Jack, and kick the shifter all the way to Kingdom Come.

"Actually, guys," Tooth said as she and North watched them, "there's a lot more to this story."

That got them to stop in their tracks and turn to face the Guardians of Wonder and Memories. There was that tone in Tooth's voice again sending a horrible premonition. "What do you mean?" Bunny asked carefully.

North sighed. "She means that we're not done just yet."

"There's more?" Bunny asked.

"I'm afraid so," said Tooth.

North took charge of the long recap this time. "Somewhere between when I sent you to get Jack and when Jack came to the Pole, the shifter must've taken Jack and stored him somewhere far away from here. About an hour later, the shifter came back disguised as Jack."

Bunny and Sandy furrowed their eyebrows together in confusion, looked at each other, and then back at North and Tooth. Something didn't make sense with what North just said. So far it sounded like a green-eyed shifter was harassing them, and from they all gathered from the research that was conducted on those creatures, it was impossible for them to change eye color, so…

Bunny scoffed as Sandy rolled his eyes.

"Well, that's pretty idiotic," said Bunny. "Wouldn't there be some differences you were bound to notice?"

Sandy smiled and created an image of a magnifying glass, a shifter, an eye, a snowflake and another eye. _The shifter and Jack have different eye colors, and because shifters have to keep their eye color, there is no way a _green-eyed _shifter could have pulled off his disguise as Jack. _

North sighed knowing that he originally thought the same thing, especially when he noticed that Jack's eyes looked green in that awful picture. "Unfortunately, this shifter is smarter than you think," he said. "Somehow, he was able to conceal his eye color and change his eyes from green to blue to completely match Jack."

Bunny was confused again. "How did he do that?" he asked. "Shifters have to keep their eye color, and last time I checked, they weren't magical creatures."

"I don't know," North replied trying not to yell at his friends. He exhaled as he continued knowing that there was still more to tell no matter how much he wanted to just skip it. He managed to push down the shame and guilt for a little bit longer. "Anyway, Jack came into the cave. I asked him where you were, and he told me that you went home. So, I told him about the fires and that I wanted to believe his shifter theory but only if he can prove it. He told me that he couldn't. That was when Tooth came in and told us that you and Sandy were missing. I then asked Jack again whether he did or did not cause the fire, and...and...he..." he took a shaky breath, "he confessed. He said that he used the shifter theory to convince us it wasn't him and that he did set the Pole on fire."

Sandy's jaw dropped in shock.

"What?" Bunny whispered. "Y-You didn't really believe that, did you?"

"No, we didn't, which is why we decided to ask Manny to clear things up," North quickly said.

Sandy picked up his jaw when North's last statement registered in his head. They didn't believe that Jack caused the fire and called upon Manny to help them out. Finally, something good was coming out of this story. Their leader and oldest friend would have surely cleared this matter up somehow. The little Sandman smiled and clapped his hands for his two friends proud that they did not jump to conclusions too quickly and did whatever they could to make sure that Jack was innocent.

"Oh, well, that's good," Bunny said smiling. However, it still didn't connect to how they ended up in the cell without Jack, but suddenly, something clicked again as he figured out the rest of the story…or so he thought. "Let me guess. He exposed the shifter. You two tried to attack him, and he ended up knocking you two out and placed all of us in here except for Frost, who—" he took one look at North and Tooth's faces and saw that they still looked sad, ashamed, and hurt, "and that's even close to what happened, is it?"

"It was the complete opposite," said North. "Manny said that...Jack was in fact guilty."

"What?!" Bunny shouted.

Sandy created an exclamation point above his head expressing the same amount of shock.

North and Tooth were not at all phased by Bunny and Sandy's reactions. So, North continued to tell them what happened after their friend was convicted.

"We asked Jack how he could betray us," he said, "and he said what he said to me when we had our fight...that he thought the world would be better off without the Guardians."

Sandy created an image of Jack and a question mark. _Our Jack said _that? The Guardian of Dreams would have expected the shifter to say that after what happened with the fire, but Jack? Jack was too good of a soul to say something so horrible to North. Then again, he was a teenager, and they do have unpredictable moods. Plus, it would explain the tension that he, Bunny, and Tooth felt between them when the Pole was set on fire and why Jack refused to talk to North when he went to see him in his tree.

"It was just out of anger, Sandy. I know now that Jack didn't mean it," North said putting his hands up to calm Sandy down. "Anyway, Manny put Jack to sleep so that I could put him in here and Tooth could take his staff while he thought of Jack's punishment. While Jack was in the cell, Manny told me that as a punishment, Jack was to have his Guardianship title removed from him and..." he swallowed the lump in his throat again before continuing, "to be turned back into a human to ensure that he could no longer harm us. Then we set out to try to find you two, and somehow somewhere during the time between Manny's verdict and when Manny punished Jack, I think the shifter managed to escape without us noticing and brought the real Jack here. Later that night, just a few hours ago actually, we took Jack out to the cliff not too far from here, and..." He, Bunny, and Sandy then looked at Tooth.

Though Tooth was still looking on the ground, she could still feel everyone's eyes on her as she remembered what happened merely hours ago. She then took a deep breath trying to muster the courage she needed to continue.

"...I asked Jack if he had anything to say."

"Well, did he?" Bunny asked.

"Yes, quite a lot," North replied. "He said that he fully trusted that Manny knew he didn't cause the fire and that Manny had a plan for him. Then he...he apologized to me for the fight we had and told Tooth to be strong."

Bunny raised his furry eyebrows. He knew that Jack was a good kid, but he didn't expect to hear that Jack was so calm and brave when all this was going on. The Guardian of Fun had the choice to either accept his fate or to fight back and be angry with his fellow Guardians, but surprisingly, he seemed to have chosen the latter. He trusted Manny, who ignored him for 300 years and then lied about him being guilty when he had the chance to expose the shifter. He apologized to North and even gave Tooth the time of day despite the fact that he knew that they thought he betrayed them. Then again, this was the same kid, who turned down Pitch's offer to join him despite having been sent away by the other Guardians, so the Pooka wasn't that surprised.

Sandy then created the question mark over his head again asking for North and Tooth to continue.

North took a deep breath for what seemed like the millionth time that day. "Then, Manny turned him back into a human. I don't know what happened. It might have been because he was never technically alive as Jack Frost and had no tolerance to the extreme cold, but Jack fainted after the transformation."

"We were just about to take him away from the Pole and bring him to Burgess when this...stranger appeared," Tooth added as shivers went down her spine from remembering how helpless and cold Jack looked, and it was all because of Manny, North, and her. "We didn't know it at the time, but it was the shifter who kidnapped you two. He then explained who he was and how he wanted Jack out of the way so that he could get to us in order to get to Manny, who now seems to have betrayed us."

"What's he planning?" Bunny asked.

"He's planning to kill Manny," North replied.

"How is he supposed to do _that?_"

"We don't know. All we know is that he plans to do it during the eclipse, and we didn't think to ask him more because we still had Jack to take care of." Father Christmas looked down in shame again as he remembered what happened after the shifter explained everything, and the guilt came back yet again. He couldn't look up at any of his fellow Guardians for this part of the briefing. "We were about to take him away from the Pole when the shifter used Sandy's dream sand to knock us out and move all four of us in here. I dropped Jack when I was put to sleep, so I don't know where he is now. However, I'm praying that the shifter at least had the heart to move him to some place warm."

There was silence…a deafening silence as Bunny and Sandy stared at their two fellow guardians. There was no emotion on either of their faces, but North and Tooth didn't realize this as they both kept their eyes on the ground feeling utterly horrible for what they had done to Jack.

"Are you two finished?" Bunny finally asked.

"Yes, we're finished," said North.

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**Ok, so that was the first chapter! Hope you all like it so far! I'll put up the next and final chapter in a few moments. In the meantime, reviews will much appreciated! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **This is the second part of "A Recap and A Chew Out." Get ready for some lecturing from Bunny and Sandy! Hope you all like it!

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything here. "Rise of the Guardians: Shift" belongs to LivingAliveCreator, who gave me permission to write this story, and the characters of the movie **_**Rise of the Guardians **_**belong to Dreamworks.**

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A Recap and A Chew Out

Chapter 2: The Chew Out

Bunny was frozen. He could not move or even speak as he stared at North and Tooth with an unreadable expression on his face. They couldn't tell whether or not he was glaring at them, but with Sandy, however, they knew he was not happy with them at all.

So many emotions were running through the Pooka's body at the moment that he was sure he forgot how to speak. Luckily, he was still able to move, so he just turned and walked away from the three of his fellow Guardians while Sandy kept his glare on North and Tooth, who watched Bunny walk over to the back wall and stare at it not even looking at them. Both North and Tooth could feel the tension that was originally between Jack and North come between them, Bunny, and Sandy.

Tooth wrapped her arms around herself not sure if it was because she was cold or uncomfortable with the deafening silence that had formed within the ice cave again.

"Bunny?" she asked carefully.

Bunny didn't answer. He just stared at the wall and kept his back turned to them. So, Tooth grew worried and decided to try again.

"Bunny, please say something."

"To be honest, Tooth, I don't know what I can possibly say to you two except...what..." He slowly turned around to face them with a glare distorting his furry face making North and Tooth tense even more, "...have you...done?"

Neither the Guardian of Wonder nor the Guardian of Memories said anything. In fact, they weren't sure what they could say. There was almost nothing to say after what happened with Jack and the shifter. All they did was stare at Bunny.

"Answer the question!" Bunny suddenly shouted making them jump. "What have you done?!"

Sandy floated into North and Tooth's line of view, pointed to Bunny, and nodded clearly demanding that they answer their friend's question.

North had a feeling that something like this would happen. He probably would have done the same thing if the roles were reversed, but still he had to get everyone to keep leveled heads. Jack was still out there somewhere. "Bunny, Sandy, please," he began raising his hands to calm them, "I know you're not happy with what happened, but—"

"Not happy? Not happy?!" Bunny shouted. "I don't know about Sandy, North, but words can't describe how I'm feeling right now! I mean, did you ever once-just once-stop to think that something was not right with what was going on?"

Now, it was North's turn to glare at Bunny. How could he accuse them of just assuming that Jack was guilty? Did the Guardian of Hope really think that he would go along with the idea of the boy he had come to love as a son being guilty of arson? Yes, he eventually did, but it was after executing every chance to find proof of Jack's innocence.

"Of course, I did, Bunny!" North shouted in return. "I didn't want to believe that Jack would do something like setting the Pole on fire. In fact, it was eating me up inside knowing that I had to convict the boy, who is like a son to me, then lock him up, and then watch as Manny gave him the harshest punishment possible. I was hoping...praying that there would be some sign that would prove to me once and for all that Jack was innocent, but with what the evidence and Manny said, I had no other choice to go along with Jack being guilty."

"That's just it, North! You knew deep down that Jack was innocent, but you didn't do anything to help him." How could North even try to justify doing this to one of their closest friends?

"What were we supposed to do, Bunny?!" Tooth suddenly shouted getting the three male Guardians to look at her. When no one answered she added, "Huh?! What were we supposed to do?!"

Sandy floated over next to Bunny and created the shape of a magnifying glass above his head saying that they could've looked harder to find something to prove Jack was innocent. There had to have been something!

"How were we supposed to do that, Sandy?" North asked in frustration. "All evidence pointed to Jack! Believe me, I tried to find loopholes in the story, but there was nothing I could use to help the boy."

Bunny didn't let his glare soften. There was not even a twitch. However, as he remembered everything North and Tooth just told him and Sandy, he did understand why North wouldn't have been able to find any more evidence that could help Jack. This shifter was good and clearly thought of everything, but still…surely, North would have remembered that they were accusing the same winter teen, who risked his life to save them from Pitch.

"Okay, fine, we get that," Bunny said, "but you could've figured out the shifter's plan in the beginning before all of this got out of hand by doing the one thing I told you to do from the get-go: talk...to Jack."

"I told you why I couldn't do that. If Jack caused the fire and I asked him, there

was no telling how he would react, and you agreed. "

"No, I didn't, North. I told you that it didn't make sense that Jack FROST...a winter spirit...would use fire. The only thing I agreed about was that he was innocent until proven guilty. I didn't say anything more about not talking to Jack because I was hoping that you would figure that out yourself, but apparently, you didn't!"

Sandy pointed at Bunny and nodded again agreeing to every word the Pooka said. He wasn't there when Bunny and North were talking about the picture, but when North came to him he said the same thing. Then he created an image of Jack and North talking as if trying to figure something out and the Guardians all dog piling on the shifter. If North and Jack had talked about the picture instead of North leaving Jack to figure everything out for himself, surely, they would've gone over the evidence together and found something that could've led them to the shifter. Manny wouldn't have had to wrongly convict Jack, and Jack wouldn't be missing in action at this point.

"Are you two finished yet?" North finally asked. He could not take hearing this chew-out anymore. He knew what he did. Why couldn't the Easter Bunny and the Sandman just leave him alone with his guilt?

Sandy crossed his arms and shook his head.

Bunny smirked. "Oh, far from it, mate. Let me ask you another question. Why didn't you want to believe that Jack was guilty? Why?"

North and Tooth looked at each other and then back at Bunny and Sandy. They were both confused as to where this conversation was going, but Tooth answered anyway.

"Because," she began, "we know Jack well enough to know that he would never betray us."

"So, you're saying that you know Jack as well as you know Sandy and me?" the Guardian of Hope asked.

"Yes, that's exactly what she's saying," North interjected stepping slightly in front of Tooth before she answered.

"You hear that, Sandy?" Bunny asked the little golden man next to him. "They knew Jack wouldn't betray us, and yet, they still couldn't figure out that it wasn't Jack who confessed to setting the North Pole on fire or that it wasn't me talking to North before Jack showed up."

Tooth glared at Bunny as she started to figure out the core of Bunny's sudden outburst. "Is that what you're angry about?!" she shouted. "You're angry at us just because North couldn't tell it wasn't you?!"

"Not just because of you not knowing it wasn't me, but Jack too," the Pooka replied. "You two say how you know both Frostbite and me so well, and you still had no clue...no gut feeling that we were both replaced by an imposter!"

"I explained why that happened, Bunny!" North cried. "The picture was too damaged for me to able to tell the difference. You and the shifter had the same eye color, and he somehow managed to change the color from green to blue when he impersonated Jack."

"Since when do you need eye color to be able to tell the difference between Jack or me and a bloody shifter?!" Bunny shouted. There was silence responding to that question. North felt his glare soften as he and Bunny stared at each other, but Bunny held his glare and continued to speak. "What about the way the two of us acted around you?! North, I defended Jack when you showed me that picture, and from what I gathered, it sounds the shifter basically told you to forget what I said and that Jack had to have done it! You know I would never change my opinion that quickly especially when it involves my friends. I would've told you to talk to Jack about his shifter theory. Yeah, I know he was blaming an extinct species, but come on, even I figured that the possibility of an animal species that can transform into anything being completely wiped out was too good to be true."

Sandy backed up his friend's point by conjuring up an image of Jack waving a small flag in surrender with an X through it and then another one of Jack in a defensive stance as if ready to fight. Jack did not surrender. He was stubborn and fought for what he believed in. Had the real Jack been in this ice cave with North, he would've done everything he could to prove it wasn't him.

Tooth stared at both Bunny and Sandy realizing that they were right. Why didn't they realize that Jack was acting different in the ice cave or when Jack was about to be punished by Manny? It was Easter Sunday all over again. They jumped to conclusions and just assumed the worst. Not only that, but they put all of their faith in Manny when it should have been put in Jack. However, something else struck her as she looked up at Bunny, who still glared right at her as she remembered how Bunny acted when they all assumed that Jack betrayed them.

"You know I could understand getting this kind of lecture from Sandy," she said glaring at him, "but why are you coming down on us, Bunny?"

North glared again when he realized what Tooth was hinting at. "Tooth's right!" he shouted. "In fact, if I recall correctly, you were the one who said that Jack couldn't be trusted last Easter."

Bunny widened his green eyes as he felt a small hint of guilt stab him in the chest. They were going down this route now? "Oh, do NOT try to turn this around on me," he said through clenched teeth. "Yes, I know what I said but that was only because I didn't know Jack very well back then. Of course, I was going to assume the worst, but now, you two had known him for a year...a YEAR. Yet you still had the nerve to assume that Jack Frost-the most stubborn, honest, big-hearted ankle biter we've ever known-would actually have the guts to try to kill the one man who has been nothing but a father to him, and you know what, that brings up another question, before you found out about that shifter, who did you think kidnapped us? Surely, it had to be the same person who started the fire."

North sighed as he and Tooth looked down again. "We assumed it was Jack, and it seemed to be true when he told us where to find you before Manny turned him mortal."

Sandy dropped his glare and then placed a palm to his forehead. Did Manny just erase any kind of common sense these two were supposed to have? It's almost as if North and Tooth had never met Jack at all. They just ASSUMED that he actually went and kidnapped him and Bunny after Manny told them he was guilty.

"Unbelievable..." Bunny said throwing his arms up and looking away.

"Bunny, Sandy, please try to understand..." Tooth tried to say with a calm voice. She hated fighting with them.

Sandy crossed his arms and shook his head. Thankfully, Bunny saved him the trouble of trying to communicate their feelings when he spoke next.

"Believe me, Tooth, we're trying to understand," the Pooka began, "and we can't. Face the facts! You both messed up. Jack didn't betray us. The both of you betrayed him! And you know what?! I will be just gobsmacked if that little bugger somehow finds it in his heart to forgive you two because if I were in his position, I wouldn't even be able to look at either of you ever again!"

Sandy conjured up images of North and Tooth on their knees with Jack in front of them telling them they had better be ready to apologize.

"Are you two done now?" North asked again. He really couldn't take the lecture anymore.

Bunny and Sandy looked at each other and then back at North and Tooth.

"Yeah, now, we're done," Bunny finally said.

North didn't say anything else. Like Bunny and Sandy, he had nothing else to say. Instead he just walked away from the three other Guardians over to the wall next to the double doors. There was no point in trying to escape. They really had no choice but to wait until the Moon was covered by the Earth's shadow. So, he just leaned on his side against the icy wall and slid down as he let Bunny and Sandy's lecture sink in. He hated to admit it, but they were absolutely 100% right. Both he and Tooth made a mess of everything that happened, especially him. He fell for the shifter and Manny's tricks and betrayed the boy he loved more than his own life. Now, because of his stupidity, Jack was out there somewhere alive or dead, and if he was alive, he was completely powerless. Tears formed in his eyes as he stared into his reflection in the ice.

"What have I done?" he whispered to himself. He closed his eyes and let the tears flow.

No one was sure how long it was since the silence took over again in the Infinity Cell. Not even Sandy was sure. The one thing he was sure about was that the four of them had to make amends before the Moon was completely covered. If they were going to find Jack and the shifter, they needed to pull together and make things right between them, but as Sandy watched his three best friends, he knew…felt the tension ringing in the cell. He turned to Bunny, who was sitting in the same position as North looking away from Sandy and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What?" Bunny asked looking over his shoulder to see the Sandman.

Sandy answered by pointing, and Bunny turned to what he was pointing at and glared at what he saw. Tooth was at the small window that allowed the Moon's light to shine through with her back to the group and her arms wrapped around her small body looking up at the Moon. From what Bunny could see, it was not long before the Moon would be completely covered. Then his eyes landed on North sitting in the same position he was in across from him. They felt guilty for what happened. That meant the chew-out got through to them.

"Good," he said. "They deserve it."

Sandy moved in front of Bunny and glared at him. Bunny knew he was "saying."

"Oh come on, you're just as angry with them as I am, and now we got to apologize?" Bunny whispered so that neither North nor Tooth could hear. "Sandy, Jack is out there somewhere all alone and defenseless. What if the shifter didn't take him away from the Pole? What if he's frozen to death right now? He needs us more than ever, and we're not there to help him."

Sandy smiled as he created images of him and Bunny and then one of Jack fighting. He was reminding Bunny of what they said about Jack being a stubborn fighter.

"I know what we said, but still..." his glare softened, "the kid has been through so much in the past couple of days. North and Tooth turned against him just because Manny said he was guilty, and what makes it even worse is that we weren't there to help him. I mean...you didn't believe it was Jack, who started the fire, did you?"

Sandy shook his head. He then conjured up images of Jack and fire with an X through them, Jack with a heart, a dialogue bubble, and then Jack and North hugging. He had told North to talk to Jack as well.

"And let me guess...North told you that Jack hating fire would be the perfect alibi?"

Sandy nodded and then created images of North and Tooth shrugging, Manny and the Planet Earth, and North and a magnifying glass. He was saying him that North and Tooth probably didn't know what else to do. They knew Manny would see who caused the fire, and he did remind Bunny that North probably did do everything he could to try to help Jack. Then he created images of North and Tooth, a double arrow, and then Bunny and himself saying that if the roles were reversed, they probably would have done the same thing.

Bunny thought about what Sandy just "said" and what North and Tooth told them. North did try to find anything that he could use against the shifter, but the shifter definitely covered every single track he made. Also, how could they NOT trust Manny when he said Jack was guilty? They had known him longer than they knew Jack, and as much as Bunny hated to admit it, before the shifter knocked him out, he had been trying to find out who else would be a possible suspect for the fire. However, it all kept coming back to Jack, and he was starting to think that maybe they didn't know Jack as well as they thought they did. That was probably what North and Tooth felt, and from what Sandy was saying, it sounded like he started to have his doubts, too. He sighed.

"Ahh...you're right," he said as he stood up and walked to the center of the cell with Sandy behind him. "We're sorry, mates, for yelling at you."

"No, Bunny, you don't have to apologize," North said as he stood up and faced them along with Tooth. "Everything you said was true. We—"

"We're not apologizing because we realized we were wrong," Bunny quickly said. "You two did mess up, and you need to find a way to fix it. We're apologizing because we're also angry with ourselves, and we took it out on you."

"What?" North asked as he and Tooth moved toward them.

"What are you two angry about?" Tooth asked. "You didn't do anything."

"That's just it, Tooth," the Easter Bunny replied. "We didn't do anything. We could've helped you two figure things out, and we weren't there. We could've gotten you guys to listen to Jack and help work things out as a team."

Sandy looked down in shame and created an image of the shifter with Bunny and himself tied up.

"Guys, you can't blame yourselves for something that wasn't under your control," Tooth said as she moved closer to them smiling.

"It's more than just the fact that we weren't there. We were starting to doubt Jack ourselves before that bloody shifter took us, and I guess… if the roles were reversed, we probably would have done what you two did. We pretty much betrayed him as well."

North and Tooth now understood where the outburst and the lecture came from. It was not only because Bunny and Sandy were angry at them for what happened with Jack, but it was also because they were angry at themselves fearing that the same thing would have happened. From the way things unraveled, it was definite that Bunny and Sandy would've found themselves caught between the same rock and hard place North and Tooth were in.

"Tooth is still right," he said. "The shifter fooled us all, and we will make sure he pays."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Bunny asked. "You said the shifter is out to kill Manny during the eclipse. By the time we get out, it will be too late."

North sighed. "At this point, I could care less about Manny. I'm more concerned about finding Jack and figuring out how to turn him back into Jack Frost."

Bunny raised an eyebrow. "Well, I get that you want to help Jack more, but don't we need Manny to do that?"

"He's not going to help anyway, Bunny," Tooth cried with a glare. "He betrayed us! He obviously worked with the shifter to get Jack out of the way!"

"Whoa, whoa, ok, back up, Sheila," Bunny said stepping away a bit from the angry Tooth Fairy. "I thought you said the shifter's plan was to kill Manny during the eclipse."

"Yes, that is what we said," North replied giving Bunny a questioning look.

Bunny and Sandy looked at each other and back at North and Tooth for the millionth time that day with deadpan expressions on their faces.

"Really, do you gumbies even hear yourselves?" Bunny asked. North and Tooth looked at them with confusion, so Bunny continued, "Why would Manny-our oldest friend and leader-betray us to a shifter, who wants to kill him?"

Realization struck North in the face. It was the same feeling he had when he realized that the shifter caused everything that happened over the past couple days. "You're right," he said. "Tooth, we've been such fools! Manny would never have done all this unless he had a good reason."

"Yeah, kinda like how Jack would never betray us," Bunny said sarcastically. "What are the odds?"

North glared at him as Tooth started to figure everything out as well.

"He had to have known the shifter was planning something for the eclipse," she said, "and when he saw that we weren't close to figuring it out..."

"He decided to intervene," North finished for her as relief washed over him knowing that Manny would never abandon them.

"Makes sense," said Bunny, "but what doesn't make sense is why he didn't just tell us what was going on instead of turning Jack into a human. Better yet, why didn't he just tell you guys that the shifter was standing next to you when you asked him if Jack was guilty?"

Sandy raised his hand to get North, Tooth, and Bunny to look at him. When he had their attention, he created a few images of Jack standing behind Manny who was in a defensive stance.

"Protect Jack," Bunny translated. "Of course, I get it!"

"What?" North asked.

"Manny was protecting Jack! Think about it, mates!" Bunny exclaimed with a big smile on his face. "The shifter did all this to get Jack out of way because he clearly knew that would be the one way to weaken us and keep us from figuring out what he had planned. If Manny had exposed this shifter, you two would've attacked him, and if he managed to escape, then..." He let them put the last few pieces of the puzzle together.

Tooth furrowed her eyebrows together and gasped. "He would've hurt Jack!"

"I understand why he would do that to protect Jack, but why let it get this far?" North asked. "Why turn the boy into a vulnerable human, who has no powers to defend himself or anyone to help him? We could all be together looking for the shifter and fighting him as a team and a family, but we're not. Jack is out there somewhere all alone, and what if the shifter does kill Manny? How is Jack supposed to become Jack Frost again if the shifter succeeds?"

Bunny's ears fell down behind his head as he stared at the fearful look on North's face. "I get what you're saying, but come on, North, this is Jack we're talking about here. You know as well as I do that he'll come up with something until we can get to him."

North nodded. "You're right," he complied, but still, he had a strange feeling in his belly that something was not backing up Bunny's statement…that something was wrong with Jack.

"North, look!" Tooth suddenly shouted. He turned around and saw that she was staring out the window, and for some reason, it looked really dark outside. "The Moon is completely covered. We can get out!"

That was when he remembered! The eclipse! Manny wasn't sealing the Cell anymore. Forget making a plan! They needed to get out NOW! He turned to Bunny, who had his arms crossed and a look of determination on his face. "You heard her, Bunny," he said. "Open the door."

"You got it," Bunny replied. Without any more hesitation, Bunny ran toward the door on all fours, flipped in mid-air, and kicked the double doors open.

"Let's get to Burgess," North said with determination as they all immediately walked out of the cell with him in the lead. "I have a feeling we'll find Jack there."

"Hopefully, we aren't already too late," he heard Bunny say next to him. "Let's take my holes. They'll be the fastest way to travel."

**THE END.**

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**Well, that's about it! Again, reviews will be appreciated! I would love to hear people's thoughts! Thanks again, guys! :)**


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